Immigrant father on trial for genital cuttingMan accused of circumcising 2-year-old daughter faces 40 years in prison

Oct 27, 2006
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - The trial of an Atlanta-area father accused of circumcising his 2-year-old daughter with scissors is focusing attention on an ancient African practice that experts say is slowly becoming more common in the U.S. as immigrant communities grow.

Khalid Adem, a 30-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia, is charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children. Human rights observers said they believe this is the first criminal case in the U.S. involving the 5,000-year-old practice.

This story makes me cringe. I can't help but putting thinking about how awful that would be, if it was me in that child's shoes.

Quote:

"Prosecutors say Adem used scissors to remove his daughter’s clitoris in their apartment in 2001. The child’s mother said she did not discover it until more than a year later."

From what I read, it was a year after the "circumcision" when the mother noticed. Wasn't the daughter 3 by that time?...How could the mother not have noticed something that, I would think, would brutally scar her child at that young age...when she's still bathing her daughter? I don't understand.

Quote:

" “He said he wanted to preserve her virginity,” Fortunate Adem, the girl’s mother, testified this week."

How, exactly, is cutting of her clitoris going to preserve her virginity? That's not how it works. ... But, really, isn't this what it's about?:

This is one of the most ignorant and cruel practices I've ever heard of...the idiots don't have sense enough to know that the clitoris has nothing to do with whether or not a female is a "virgin." That word makes me sick, too...it's so goddamned hypocritical...nobody seems to give a big happy hurrah about whether or not a male is a "virgin." Sheesh.....

Why can't humans simply acknowledge the fact that we have sex for a variety of reasons and be done with it? It's fine to have laws to protect those who wouldn't be otherwise protected, but the bottom line is that we are sexual creatures and no amount of religious denial is going to change that.

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

That word makes me sick, too...it's so goddamned hypocritical...nobody seems to give a big happy hurrah about whether or not a male is a "virgin." Sheesh.....

I've read a bit about people who practice this before, and things similar, such as the sewing up of the vagina. The hypocrytical bullshit between male and female virginity was something that always drove me crazy! Women are butchered so they'll keep their virginity ( sex tends to be very painful after the 'procedure'--go figure!!), yet the men have sex with tons of "whores" while waiting for their virgin brides. WTF?

_________________"I may detest what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." -Voltaire